Zucchini Bites with Hummus

Hello everyone! I have a simple and delicious recipe to share with you today. I am so excited to be a featured blogger on Fit Mom Diet. I post a monthly health eating recipe, and this is the most recent one. One of my favorite things about summertime is the abundance of fresh veggies. I can never get enough! The hummus is flavorful and full of protein, a perfect match for the roasted zucchini. 

Zucchini Bites with Hummus

Serves 4 as a side dish, 6 as an appetizer.

Ingredients:

• 1 can garbanzo beans, drained with liquid reserved
• 2 Tbsp tahini
• 2 tsp salt (optional)
• 1 lemon, zested and juiced
• 2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 4 zucchini
• 2 Tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley
• Salt and pepper (optional)

To make the hummus:

1. In a food processor combine the garbanzo beans, tahini, salt if you are using it, lemon juice, garlic, and 1 tbsp of the olive oil.

2. Process until smooth. If it’s too thick, you may need to add up to 4 tbsp of the reserved liquid from the beans.

To roast the zucchini:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Slice zucchini on the diagonal, approximately 1/4 in thick.

3. Lightly coat zucchini slices with the remaining olive oil and season with salt (optional) and pepper.

4. Roast on a rimmed baking sheet for approximately 15-20min, or until tender. How long it takes will depend on how thick you slice the zucchini.

Combine:

1. Let zucchini cool to room temperature, top with a spoonful of hummus.

2. Sprinkle chopped parsley and lemon zest on top of the hummus.

3. Serve and enjoy!

This dish is good warm, but I believe the delicate lemon flavor is more pronounced when it’s served at room temperature. The hummus is even better if you make it a day ahead of time, but making before you serve it works well, too. If you anticipate having leftovers, I suggest storing the hummus and zucchini separate and combining just before you plan to serve it. I had extra hummus so I served it to my son with raw carrots and broccoli. He loved it!

OPI Minnie Style and Zoya Ali

I have been so busy lately and have missed posting on my blog. I have been trying to meet a friend for lunch for three or four weeks now, and have intended to call my sister in law for I don't know how long. Each time it seems like something else pops up! I guess that's what happens when you have a ten month old who just learned to walk and wants to climb on everything. Time. I just need more of it! 

Zoya Ali is a retina-searing pink neon, and Minnie Style is a glitter with matte white hexagons and fuchsia hexagons. The first time I used it I thought the glitter was a mix of pink and red but since then I've realized it only looked  different because of the lighting. Anyway, it goes with a lot of the polishes I own and I love the versatility. Ali never translates well in photographs, it's one of those colors you need to see in real life. I love how bright it is, but sometimes it's almost blinding. Adding the glitter toned it down a notch.

Shade

Sun

Flash

Sally Hansen Fuzzy Coat

These just came out and I am so excited that I got my hands on them. I bought three, and I have two to show you today. A texture other than boring glitter? Yes, please!

First, the formula was good, maybe a little thicker than I'd like but nothing that a little thinner can't fix. Each polish has two different colored small bar glitters in a clear base. Maybe "glitter" isn't the best word to use, because they aren't shiny, but you get my drift :-) When you use multiple coats it looks like woven patches of yarn, or maybe shag carpeting. It appears very textured, but it is actually pretty smooth. One layer of topcoat completely covered any roughness. Fuzz-Sea was much easier to apply than Tweedy. I think next time I use Tweedy I'll have to add quite a bit of thinner.

This is Fuzz-Sea, it has aqua and pastel yellow in a clear base. I first wore it as an accent nail with OPI Jade is the New Black. I thought they were a perfect match. A few days later I chipped a nail and instead of fixing my mani I just added Fuzz-Sea to all my nails.

With flash.

This is in full sun.

The next one I used is called Tweedy, which is a simple black and white combination. One of my favorite looks is red, black, and white. I paired it with Innie Minnie Mighty Bow from the Couture de Minnie Collection. I loved this! I would have worn it longer, but sadly, it didn't stand up to a marathon dish washing session.

What do you think of these textured polishes?

Nicole by OPI-Miss Independent

I just picked this up at Target, it was on sale for $4 and I can't pass up a deal like that! I don't usually like straight metallics but this one is slightly pink and I ended up really liking it. The formula was good, nice consistency and it didn't show brushstrokes as much as I thought it would. I used three coats here. In the shade it looks like smooth chrome, but it the sunlight you can see little tiny flecks of glitter and it sparkles like crazy. I think this color would be flattering on any skin tone.

Outside shade

Full sun

Shade

With flash